1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to the design of a hydraulic jet pump, usable more particularly for activating hydrocarbon or water producing-wells, with positioning and removal of the pump by the technique called TFL (Through flow lines).
The TFL technique allows tools or instruments to travel through the different installations of a well: collecting equipment, well-head, and production tubing. For passing the bottom tools through the well-head, this installation is equipped with a device providing the junction between the flow line and the well. This device, which will be called in the following text "Lyre" since it generally looks like a lyre, consists of a loop of about 3 meters in diameter, for passing from the horizontal (or inclined) position of the collecting line to the vertical position of the well.
So that a tool may travel through the installation, it must be formed of articulated elements whose length is compatible with the radius of curvature (or bending radius) or the lyre (1.5 meters). This length in general does not exceed 0.5 meter.
In underwater production, the TFL technique avoids the operations for introducing and removing tools or instruments at the level of the well-head, which operations require the use of relatively considerable means such, for example, as the equipment of a ship with dynamic positioning. The TFL technique does away with the need for a service ship, the bottom equipment being introduced (and withdrawn) through ducts from the production platform.
The object of the present invention is to adapt the jet pump to the TFL technique, so that this pump may be installed in the well and withdrawn in accordance with this technique.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The British patent No. GB-A 2,107,397 describes a jet pump having a spherical articulation. This articulation is situated at the lower (downstream) end of the pump properly speaking and not in the central and functional part of the pump.
The prior art in this field is also illustrated for example by the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 3,052,302; British Specification No. 1,533,416 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,781,134.